Bill Wooditch is author of “Fail More: Embrace, Learn, and Adapt to Failure As a Way to Success” and a motivational speaker with a risk and financial background. He is founder and CEO of The Wooditch Group, a risk-management and corporate insurance firm. He mentors and teaches clients skills to harness the lessons of failure to create success driven opportunities. His approach is a physical, intellectual, spiritual and emotional journey based on 25 years of real life experience.

Bill’s first job out of college was at Liberty Mutual making insurance cold calls. It wasn’t a job he necessarily wanted, but it was an opportunity that he was determined to make work. On Bill’s desk, he had a ruler that read, “Activity Rules Success”. He made that phrase his motto for his work at Liberty – making the most calls he could everyday and noting what worked and didn’t. He figured that if he had the most activity and just kept pushing, he would eventually have a break though – and he did.

“What do you really want?” Bill uses this question often in presentations. Most are too afraid to do whatever it takes to make it. Perseverance has gone by the wayside and most want the easy job or quick success without the work. Bill has lots of “get tough” talks and works to put people in a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset. With everyone having their own internal version of success, Bill teaches that first knowing: 1) What you are, and 2) Who you are, is how progress is made in figuring out how to reach that success.

Safi Bahcall is an American technologist, business executive, and author. He has presented at over 130 banking conferences, investor events, and medical meetings around the world, as well as at leading academic institutions. His book “Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries” is out.

Safi grew up with parents who were highly acclaimed physicists. He was indoctrinated with the mindset of looking at the world and asking, “Why?” Even to this day, he has those discussions of asking, “Why” with his parents. It has given him an inquisitive perspective – always looking at things from multiple angles.

What is a loonshot? Loonshots are how big achievements, money, fame and recognition are produced. They are leaps of faith grounded in asking good questions. In keeping a questioning mindset you may find the twist that gives you the answer to what everyone else is missing. This asking mindset can be applied across all fields – military, government, technology, medicine, politics, social media, etc. Safi exposes some of these loonshots with examples going back to Alexander Graham Bell, WWII, Apple and many others.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio:

Social media companies Loonshots National research system of the U.S. Leader mindsets Innovation Good companies vs. Failing companies Early stage ideas Apple Steve Jobs AT&T Bell Labs

Dana Cavalea is the former strength, conditioning and performance coach for the New York Yankees and author of, “Habits of a Champion, Nobody Becomes a Champion By Accident.” He started in baseball as an underperforming player, knowing he would never make it to the major leagues. In 2002, at 19 years old, he was given the opportunity to be a towel/weight room cleanup guy for the Yankee’s – he quickly jumped at the chance.

How did Dana make the move from towel guy to strength and conditioning coach? Core and functional training was just taking off in the world of sports. He committed himself to learning everything he could in that sports niche. Players would give him the chance to teach them different stretching techniques (on the side of their other training). His tips were working and players confidence in him and his confidence in himself snowballed.

Dana gave players two things other trainers weren’t providing: 1. He could find immediate ways to locate and alleviate pain. He took players like Jorge Posada and Derek Jeter and found where their pain was and gave them tips and tricks to help relieve some pain to get them on the field for their next game. 2. He built relationships with players outside of the stadium. Dana would go to breakfast, lunch and dinner with players and gain comradeship. When players know, like and trust you, you win them over.

As a New York native Dana grew up loving the game of baseball. And as a player himself, he always wanted to know what the pros “edge” was. His new book (and this podcast) is packed full of how players like Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Mariano Rivera, Mark Teixeira, Andy Pettitte, and Jorge Posada think. He shares what gives baseball’s elite players the edge needed to be a winner–lessons we can all use baseball players or not.

Eric Dugan is founder of 3D Capital Management, where he runs two primary intraday systems: short-biased S&P 500 and long-short trend following S&P 500 using multiple global markets as inputs and indicators. His systems analyze the flow of markets around the world and attempt to identify how the action in a certain market will impact the S&P during U.S. trading hours. Eric has not missed a trading day since the inception of 3D Capital Management 11 years ago.

Eric had been working construction in 1992 when his best friend moved to Chicago to trade. Shortly after his friend left, he reached back out to Eric to give him a job. December of 1992 was Eric’s first visit to Chicago for an interview with famed trader Monroe Trout, and in January of 1993 he began his first day ever trading for Trout Trading.

Because Trout was a systematic trader, there was no real need to know “what” a trader was going to do, other than trade the system. Eric’s lack of knowledge of markets when he first started did not matter because the system was king. Eric worked for Trout Trading from 1993 – 1999. When Eric started he had zero experience and within a year he was manager of Pacific Rim desk at Trout Trading. He quickly learned how to identify weakness in the stock market, which has become his greatest asset throughout his career.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio:

Risk Control Identifying trends Profiting from weakness in the stock market Trading world markets Buying high and selling higher

Daphne Chua has completed over 2,000 hours of teacher trainings and taught over 3,000 hours in classes, private sessions, special needs yoga, workshops, retreats, and teacher trainings. She is a certified yoga therapist, movement educator, body worker, Anusara Inspired™ teacher, E-RYT500 Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider (YACEP), and has been running her own embodiment and inquiry-based therapeutic training modules for the last 3 years.

Yoga is a practice of the body and mind connection. It helps people understand their bodies and relationships better. Most come into yoga for physical practice first, and later are drawn in deeper for the positive psychological effects. The body goes through different shapes, poses and forms that trigger the mind.

What happens chemically when leaving a massage or yoga class? What leaves a student in a state of euphoria? When working with the body there is constant chemical changes taking place. It all comes back to breath. When anxious or stressed there is shallow breathing that occurs and is concentrated in the upper chest area. Once the breath and circulation starts flowing, the mind gets more clear and focused. We begin to see the world as it is rather than over analyzing and focusing on trivial things. Breath gives fresh perspective. Throughout Daphne’s practice her therapy sessions, classes, workshops, and trainings focus on breath and awareness of the mind-body connection.